806 
SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — PYGOPODES. 
gray ; under parts from the breast pure white, shading insensibly into the color of the sides and 
flanks. Inner webs of wing- and tail-feathers grayish-brown, paler toward base, the shafts of 
the primaries dull whitish at base. Length 15.50; extent 26.00; wing 7.25; tail 2.50; tarsus 
1.20 ; middle toe and claw 1.85 ; outer do. 1.70 ; inner do. 1.40 ; chord of culmen without horn 
1.00, with horn 1.40; gape 2.00 ; nostril to tip of horn 0.75 ; total depth of bill, including horn, 
1.25. In winter : Plumage the same; iris white ; no horn nor accessory piece under the bill, 
these being shed ; place of horn occupied by a soft dark-colored basement membrane or cere 
Sagmatorhina sucMeyi," Fig. 537). Young : Bill like that of adults in winter, lacking 
horn, but every way weaker, hardly more than half as large. Mostly dark-colored. No white 
feathers on side of head. White of under parts overlaid and marbled with dark-gray ends of 
the feathers ; black of upper parts brownish. The first spring the horn grows, the accessory 
piece develops, and the plumage clears up. Nestlings are covered with smoky-brown down. 
Both coasts and islands of N. Pacific, to Lower California and Japan; not specially arctic; 
e. g., breeds on the Farallone Islands. 
340. SIMORHYN'CHUS. (Gr. aifios, simos, snub-nosed ; pvyxos, hriigchos, beak.) Snub-NOSED 
Auks. Of moderate and very small size, and stocky shape. Head usually crested or with 
peculiar feathers. Bill of indeterminate shape, difiering with each species, furnished with a 
varying number of deciduous horny elements. Nostrils entirely unfeathered. Wings and tail 
ordinary. Feet small; tarsi shorter than middle toe, entirely reticulate; toes long, middle and 
outer of about equal lengths, claw of the former longest ; inner claw reaching base of middle ; 
all curved and compressed. Four species, very distinct ; the queerest little auks in the world. 
Each has been made type of a genus ; S. psittaculiis difiers more from the rest than these do 
from one another, and might stand apart as a genus (Phaleris), the others being rated as sub- 
genera {Simorhynchus proper, Tylorhamphus, and Ciceronid). 
Analysis of Species. 
Upper mandible oval, lower mandible falcate, rictus curved upward. No crest {Phaleris) . psittaculiis 858 
Upper mandible triangular, lower straight, rictus horizontal, sinuate. 
A long frontal crest, curling over forward. 
One series of white feathers on each side of head (5i?norZi?/nc /t?<.s proper) cristatellus 859 
More than one series of white feathers on each side of head (T'?//or/«am/>/ms) .... pygmceus 860 
Shortwhite hair-like feathers over the forehead; no crest (Cicero >iia) pusillus 861 
858. S. psitta'culus. (Lat. psittaculus, a little parrot. Fig. 439.) Parroquet Auk. Pug- 
NOSED Auk, Bill moderately large, much compressed, densely feathered for some distance at 
base, but not to the nostrils, which are narrowly 
oval, overhung by a projecting scale or shield, 
which is deciduous. Profile of bill oval; of 
upper mandible narrowly oval ; culmen gently 
convex, declinate, tomial edge more convex, ac- 
clinate, meeting at an obtuse tip; lower mandi- 
ble extremely slender, falcate, curved upward, 
with concave tomia, very convex gonys, and 
acute point. Frontal feathers embracing cul- 
men with a reentrance, thence dropping per- 
pendicularly to commissure; those on lower 
Fig. 539. -Parroquet Auk, nat. size. (Ad nat. del. mandible not reaching quite so far; interramal 
H. W. Elliott.) space fully feathered. Adult : In summer with 
the nasal saddle, moulted in one piece in winter ; shape of bill not materially altered, however, 
the piece being small and flattish. Bill vermilion or coral-red, usually enamel-yellow at tip 
and along edges. No curly crest on forehead, but a series of long white filamentous feathers 
from the eye downward and backward. Entire upper parts, with chin, throat, breast, and 
